Directors – Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham – 2024 – UK – Cert. U – 79m
*****
Feathers McGraw returns to wreak havoc with Wallace’s latest invention, robotic garden smart gnomes – out in UK cinemas on Friday, December 18th 2024, on the BBC on Christmas Day, and on Netflix from Friday, January 3rd 2025
Opening with the capture, some years ago, of notorious master criminal Feathers McGraw (voice: none) for the attempted theft of the blue diamond, foiled by simple Lancastrian inventor Wallace (voice: Ben Whitehead, doing an amazing job replacing the late Peter Sallis) and his smart pet dog Gromit (voice: none), this second feature sees Wallace inventing furiously, making next to no money and the household bills pile up.
However, all that is about to change with Wallace’s latest gadget, Norbot the Smart Gnome (voice: Reece Shearsmith) who, voice-instructed by his inventor to make Gromit’s carefully tended garden “neat and tidy”, chops down most of the put-upon pooch’s cherished, colourful flowerbeds to replace them with something resembling a Brutalist version of the Gardens of the Palace of Versailles.
This impresses the neighbours and passing tradesman, causing Wallace – a lightbulb sign from a stationery van (hilariously parked behind him) above his head – to realise that he has a potential business startup here. And so, Wallace and Norbot’s Gnome Improvements is born, with van to match. Noting the absence of his name on the owning duo compounding his sense of grief for the loss of his flowerbeds, Gromit is, understandably, less than happy.
However, worse is to come. A TV news item on the gnome’s amazing gardening abilities comes to the attention of Feathers McGraw when his guards watch it on their telly. Hacking the guards’ computer by correctly guessing Wallace’s password, McGraw changes the drop-down menu of the Norbot from Good to Evil, and soon, powered by his indefatigable work ethic, the smart gnome has created a veritable army of sinister Norbots who are helping him covertly engineer some dastardly device in the basement.
The next day, a crime wave sweeps the area as tools go missing from garden sheds, sheds go missing from where they once stood proud, and Gromit goes missing when the now evil robots lock him up in Wallace’s shed. As for the hapless Wallace, the gnomes gently sedate him with a seductive mug of Snoozy Choc.
The local police, meanwhile – Chief Inspector Mackintosh (voice: Peter Kay) who is much more interested in his upcoming retirement speech, and new arrival from police training college PC Mukherjee (voice: Lauren Patel) – think they have got their man in Wallace, as all the evidence points to perpetrators working out of 62 West Wallaby Street. Then Gromit discovers that the engine and wheels of the van are missing…
The incarcerated McGraw is orchestrated with music cues and in prison arm lift exercises straight out of Cape Fear (Martin Scorsese, 1991) in an opening scene which plays like a primer in how to shoot and edit film noir. Yet, such is the skill of co-directors Park, Wallace & Gromit’s creator, and Crossingham, a veteran of realising Wallace & Gromit videogames and looking after associated merch over the years, that such dark moments jostle happily with scenes that might grace a TV sitcom or a British cop show of yore.
The gags (including two hilarious names of TV news journalists and announcers – played by Diane Morgan and Muzz Khan – whose character names we won’t reveal here as they are priceless gags in themselves) come thick and fast, and are worth seeing at least on your first viewing without knowing what’s coming.
The pace is ramped up – or down – towards the end as events approach the Lancashire / Yorkshire border with all the speed one narrowboat can muster in pursuit of another on a canal, which is actually not much at all. Such speed in fact that it’s hilariously no different to that of the old lady on the canal bank beside them walking her dog in a leisurely manner. That one gag is indicative of the numerous gags that come impossibly thick and fast, from magazine headlines and bylines through to TV presenter names, to visual sight gags… (Again, one doesn’t want to describe them upfront because that would ruin the fun for the viewer.)
Even the film noir-y sections have these gags, such as the feather near the guard’s nose threatening to make him sneeze and wake up as Feathers McGraw attempts to hack said guard’s computer by means of extendable arms and hands built entirely from detritus collected from his maximum security, public zoo enclosure.
This production – and everything about it: script, plasticine character animation, accompanying miniature production design and lighting – ekes excellence on every level. And, as I’ve said many times and will say many times again, humour is the single, most difficult genre to pull off effectively, something Nick Park appears to do both consistently and effortlessly. (The latter isn’t true, of course: considerable effort goes into writing and making these films – it’s just that they are so well-made that you become completely caught up in them that you forget just how well crafted they are.)
At a mere 79 minutes, this packs in far more than most live action movies, even the ones that are considerably longer, proving that you don’t have to run for two hours or more to make a masterpiece. I hesitate to say this is the best Wallace & Gromit yet – perhaps I’ll say that when the dust has settled – but it’s at least the equal of the half hour The Wrong Trousers (Nick Park, 1993). A comic masterpiece.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is out in UK cinemas on Friday, December 18th 2024, on the BBC on Christmas Day, and on Netflix from Friday, January 3rd 2025.
Trailer: